Armstrong 'deserves to be forgotten'

Forget the seven Tour de France victories. Forget the yellow jersey celebrations on the Champs Elysees. Forget the name that dominated the sport of cycling for so many years. As far as cycling’s governing body is concerned, Lance Armstrong is out of the record books.

Once considered the greatest rider in Tour history, the American was cast out on Monday by his sport, formally stripped of his seven titles and banned for life for his involvement in what US sports authorities describe as a massive doping program that tainted all of his greatest triumphs.

Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling and he deserves to be forgotten in cycling.

‘‘Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling and he deserves to be forgotten in cycling,’’ said Pat McQuaid, the president of the International Cycling Union.

McQuaid announced that UCI accepted sanctions imposed by the US Anti-Doping Agency and would not appeal them to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. McQuaid said he was ‘‘sickened’’ by some of the evidence detailed by USADA in its 200-page report and hundreds of pages of supporting testimony and documents.

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The condemnation by cycling’s most senior official confirmed Armstrong’s pariah status, after the UCI had backed Armstrong at times in trying to seize the doping investigation from USADA.

McQuaid said the UCI endorsed a life ban for Armstrong after almost two weeks studying the American agency’s evidence and will meet on Friday to discuss going after his 2000 Olympic bronze medal. It will also consider the re-attribution of titles and prize money from the Texan’s tainted races.

"Something like this must never happen again" ... International Cycling Union President, Pat McQuaid. Photo: AFP

Tour director Christian Prudhomme said he no longer considers Armstrong to be a champion from 1999-2005 and wants him to pay back his prize money.

‘‘We wish that there is no winner for this period,’’ he said in Paris. ‘‘For us, very clearly, the titles should remain blank. Effectively, we wish for these years to remain without winners.’’

Armstrong’s representatives had no immediate comment, but the rider was defiant in August as he chose not to fight USADA in one of the agency’s arbitration hearings, arguing the process was rigged against him.

‘‘I know who won those seven Tours, my teammates know who won those seven Tours, and everyone I competed against knows who won those seven Tours,’’ Armstrong said then.

‘‘The toughest event in the world where the strongest man wins. Nobody can ever change that.’’

USADA said Armstrong had ‘‘the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport has ever seen’’ within his US Postal Service and Discovery Channel teams. He will lose all his race results since August 1998.

The agency welcomed the decision by UCI, following months of sparring between the two organisations.

‘‘Today, the UCI made the right decision in the Lance Armstrong case,’’ USADA CEO Travis Tygart said in a statement, which called on cycling to continue to fight doping. ‘‘There are many more details of doping that are hidden, many more doping doctors, and corrupt team directors and the omerta has not yet been fully broken.’’

The USADA report said Armstrong and his teams used steroids, the blood booster EPO and blood transfusions. The report included statements from 11 former teammates who testified against Armstrong, including that he pressured them to take banned drugs.

‘‘I was sickened by what I read in the USADA report,’’ McQuaid said, singling out the testimony of former teammate David Zabriskie.

‘‘The story he told of how he was coerced and to some extent forced into doping is just mind boggling."

’Armstrong denies doping, saying he passed hundreds of drug tests - he has claimed as many as 500. UCI conducted 218 tests and there were another 51 by USADA, although they are not the only drug-testing bodies. USADA’s report, released earlier this month, was aimed at showing why the agency ordered the sanctions against him.

‘‘At the moment Lance Armstrong hasn’t admitted to anything, yet all the evidence is there in this report that he doped,’’ McQuaid said.

While drug use allegations have followed the 41-year-old Armstrong throughout much of his career, the USADA report has badly damaged his reputation.

Longtime sponsors Nike, Trek Bicycles and Anheuser-Busch dropped him last week, and Armstrong also stepped down last week as chairman of Livestrong, the cancer awareness charity he founded 15 years ago after surviving testicular cancer which spread to his lungs and brain.After the UCI decision Monday, another longtime Armstrong sponsor, Oakley sunglasses, cut ties with the rider but not his charity.

Armstrong’s astonishing return from life-threatening illness to the summit of cycling offered an inspirational story that transcended the sport. However, his downfall has ended ‘‘one of the most sordid chapters in sports history,’’ USADA said in its report.

The world’s most famous cyclist could still face further sports sanctions and legal challenges. Armstrong could lose that 2000 Olympic time-trial bronze medal and may be targeted with civil lawsuits from ex-sponsors or even the US government.

AP

59 comments

"UCI agrees to strip Armstrong of titles" - Good.

Commenter

good

Date and time

October 23, 2012, 12:34PM

I don't think going after him was the right thing to do. He was an inspiration to many cancer sufferers and he raised 100's of millions in donations. I think those things are infinitely more important than cycling or any other sport. How much money will be lost to the cause of cancer due to the USADA/UCI tearing him down? Quite a bit I'd imagine. How many lives will will be lost due to those funds not being available. Quite a few also. If even one life is lost it wasn't worth it. I see a lot of self-righteous angry comments so far. I wonder how full of themselves those same people will be if someone they love gets cancer and can't afford expensive tests/treatment...

I believe his charity efforts far outweigh his history of cheating. Given there's always been so much doping in cycling, I'm not even sure it was cheating. If his competitors were dopers (likely), then perhaps his actions were simply the norm at the time and to not do so would've put a cyclist at a disadvantage?

Commenter

JamesM

Date and time

October 23, 2012, 2:02PM

@ JamesM

Your comment is absolutely ridiculous. By your logic, any sportsperson should be allowed to cheat to their heart's content, but as long as they've lent their name to a worthwhile charity, it's OK.

The fight against cancer won't lose any funding or donations because of this. LiveStrong will, and rightly so. The entire organisation has been built on the systematic lies and deceit of this man. Sponsors and donors to LiveStrong will simply take their money to other charities. Cancer research doesn't need Lance Armstrong, and any lives that are lost to cancer in the future will not be because of his and LiveStrong's demise. The UCI has got nothing to feel responsible for, they did exactly what they should have.

Armstrong is a cheat, a coward, a bully, a fraud, a liar, and any other derogatory terms I forgot to mention. He's brought all of this - all of it - on himself. I don't lament his downfall, nor do feel the slightest bit sorry for him.

Commenter

BWS

Date and time

October 23, 2012, 2:29PM

@James, I have great respect for what he has done off the bike, but this s not about what he has done off the bike. It is about the fact that he cheated for years and continues to lie about it. How would you feel finishing behind this guy knowing you were never going to get close becase he cheats whilst you were clean?

Commenter

fed up teacher

Date and time

October 23, 2012, 2:32PM

JamesM, please. The reality is that most of the money raised through Livestrong goes not to cancer research but to cancer awareness. He may well have been an inspiration but it was all achieved under a cloud of lies. Bottom line, the man is a cheat. I think it naive of you to claim he may not have even been cheating because of rampant doping in the sport. A comment like this is akin to saying Hitler wasn't so bad because he was only following Stalin's lead. Let our heroes be clean and inspire our children they can succeed drug free in sport.

Commenter

GM Penny

Date and time

October 23, 2012, 2:37PM

@ JamesM - just to get a few things straight from your comments: 1) It doesn't matter the crime a person commits, if they are involved in charities (like the mafia were in the states and columbian drug cartels are in south america), they deserve to be left alone; and 2) because a lot of people did it in world cycling ("the norm" you say), then that's okay as well. It may encourage a whole generation of yound cyclists to take performance enhaning drugs... but hey, everyone does it so go for it. Strange logic there my friend.

Commenter

Raz

Date and time

October 23, 2012, 2:41PM

@JamesM, cool story, a cheat is still a cheat though. Sentiment.

Commenter

struth

Date and time

October 23, 2012, 2:44PM

@Raz: Not the best comparison mate - comparing organisations that kill people and distribute drugs. to a guy that, yes he cheated, but he didn't harm or kill anyone in the process. Arguments sound stupid when you make points using ridiculous extremes.

Commenter

RCheck

Location

Perth

Date and time

October 23, 2012, 3:42PM

@JamesM, So all those who engage in illicit activities should take a leaf out of Armstrong's model of image building to completely wash off their misdeeds. Come to think of it I feel sorry for people like Salim Malik (Banned for match fixing in Cricket), Hansie Cronje (again in cricket), Marion Jones (Athletics) and the like for not engaging in humanitarian endeavors to mitigate the magnitude of their wrong doings. May be even the wrong doers in the Catholic church might do the same in future. Did you see what a slippery slope this kind of thinking can be?.

JamesM, Firstly UCI or USADA did not ban Armstrong from engaging in Humanitarian activities. Secondly if the honest Armstrong sincerely believes he is innocent this is the best opportunity to take on these organizations.

Commenter

Sam

Date and time

October 23, 2012, 4:28PM

@James what about the fact that his drug taking may have caused his Cancer?? How inspirational is that?

23 Oct
The President of the Union Cycliste Internationale, Pat McQuaid, labelled its ratification of a life ban against Lance Armstrong and the stripping of his seven Tour de France titles as a "landmark day".

23 Oct
The President of the Union Cycliste Internationale, Pat McQuaid, labelled its ratification of a life ban against Lance Armstrong and the stripping of his seven Tour de France titles as a "landmark day".

23 Oct
Dallas insurance company SCA Promotions is demanding the return of millions of dollars in bonuses paid to Lance Armstrong now that the shamed cyclist's Tour de France victories have been expunged.

23 Oct
MATT WHITE and Stephen Hodge should not have lost their positions at Cycling Australia after their confessions to doping during their racing careers, says Jonathan Vaughters, who testified in the US Anti-Doping Agency's investigation into Lance Armstrong.